Infants exposed to antibiotics may be obese

Infants exposed to antibiotics may be obese

Young infants who are treated with antibiotics before 6 months are more likely at risk of being overweight in childhood, according to a study.

The study of more than 10,000 children by researchers at the NYU School of Medicine and the NYU Wagner School of Public Service found that on average, children exposed to antibiotics from birth to 5 months of age weighed more for their height than children who weren't exposed.

Between the ages of 10 to 20 months, this translated into small increases in body mass percentile, based on models that incorporated the potential impacts of diet, physical activity, and parental obesity. By 38 months of age, exposed children had a 22 per cent greater likelihood of being overweight.

However, the timing of exposure mattered: children exposed from 6 months to 14 months did not have significantly higher body mass than children who did not receive antibiotics in that same time period.

The NYU School of Medicine researchers, led by Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP, associate professor of pediatrics and environmental medicine, and Jan Blustein, MD, PhD, professor of population health and medicine, caution that the study does not prove that antibiotics in early life causes young children to be overweight. It only shows that a correlation exists.

Further studies will need to be conducted to explore the issue of a direct causal link.

The study was published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Obesity.